Is Christoph Waltz a Good Actor?

Lately I've been watching a lot of movies with Christoph Waltz in them (like Tarantino's last movies). He seems like a good actor, but I really would like to know if he is really that good, or he's been having a good roll in the last movies. Besides his last performances, I believe I've never seen Christoph Waltz before in any other Hollywood flick. I've also noted that he is really fluent in German in "Inglorious Basterds", so I'm wondering if he is American or European. Do you know where he's from? Have you seen any other movie featuring the actor Christoph Waltz? I've read a couple of interviews in my local newspaper complementing his acting skills, so now I'm wondering if he is really a good actor or just overrated.

I believe that Christoph Waltz is a really good actor and has had an impressive acting career since the '70s, but unless you speak German, you probably haven't seen a lot of his work. His performance in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds might just convince you that reading subtitles is not such a bad thing after all.

He was born in Vienna, Austria, and his parents are German and Austrian.
He started acting in TV and series in 1977 and performed in about thirty TV-movies, but he failed to jump into stardom.
It was not until Waltz met Quentin Tarantino in 2008 that his career in Hollywood took off. The role of Colonel Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds was so good and convincing that catapulted Christoph from a lifetime working in German TV/film to the new life of an international superstar, Academy Award winning actor. He won 27 awards for his performance as Hans Landa, including the Cannes prix d'interpretation Masculine for 2009, the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor award. In 2013 he also got nominated for best performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.

Waltz is also really good with languages. He is fluent in German, French, and English and speaks all three of the languages in both Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.

Christoph resides in Berlin and Los Angeles. His partner is the costume builder Judith Holste.